How many people in the developing world do not have access to safe drinking water?

100,000
1.1 million
1 billion

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There are currently more than 1000 million people in the world that lacks access to an easily accessible and safe water source, such as a connection to water mains or a protected well. Instead, water access is limited or available through unprotected sources. The target, under the Millennium Development Goals, is to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

The water footprint shows the amount of water used by a country in relation to the number of people in its population. The global average water footprint is 1240m3/cap/yr (for the period 1997-2001). Which country has a water footprint beyond the global average?

China
USA
South Africa

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The 'water footprint' of a country is defined as the volume of water needed for the production of goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the country. The water footprint of a country can be calculated with either the top-down approach or bottom-up approach. In the top-down approach, one calculates the water footprint as the sum of water use in the country, plus gross virtual water import into the country, minus gross virtual water export. In the bottom-up approach, we aggregate the individual water footprints of the inhabitants of a country to get the total water footprint of a country. Individual water footprints are calculated by multiplying all consumed goods and services with their respective virtual water content.

Result:
Based on the top-down approach, the global average water footprint is found to be 1240 m3/yr/cap. There are large differences between countries. In the USA the average water footprint is 2500 m3/cap/yr. In China the average water footprint is 700 m3/cap/yr.

Average national water footprint per capita (m3/cap/yr). Green means that the nations' water footprint is equal to or smaller than the global average. Countries with red have a water footprint beyond the global average. Period: 1997-2001.

Which country employs the most people in R&D as a percentage of the total number of people in employment?

China
Finland
South Africa

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The diagram shows clearly that Finland has the highest intensity with around 24 R&D personnel per 1,000 total employment, followed by Sweden (18), Denmark (16) and Japan (15). China, South Africa and Mexico however demonstrate the lowest intensity of R&D personnel.

Source: OECD Science, Technology and Industry Outlook 2008: 48

Q4.

The investment needed to improve water resources management also mitigates damage caused by natural disasters. In 2002, flooding alone cost the world economy ...

more than 2 million USD
more than 2.8 billion USD
more than 27 billion USD

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Flooding in Paraguay(March 2009)

Source: Torsten Krekeler (BGR)

Result of the Tsunami 2004(Banda Aceh 2006)

Source: Torsten Krekeler (BGR)

Flooding alone cost the world economy USD 27,3 billion in 2002. Floods in Asia resulted in economic losses of approximately USD 6 billion and 3500 fatalities.

Above all the poor in the low-income countries remain acutely vulnerably to exogenous shocks. Shocks such as natural disasters (floods, droughts) have significant adverse consequences on growth prospects in these countries, particularly in the agricultural communities that lack sufficient water resource management.

Poor countries in particular can make the biggest economic gains to mitigate natural disasters (e.g. by an improved water resource management). The flood control functions of wetlands can provide annual flood attenuation benefits of more than USD 1750 per hectare of wetland area.

Source: Stockholm International Water Institute, SIWI (2004-2005): "Making Water a Part of Economic Development: The Economic Benefits of Improved Water Management and Services". Stockholm. Sweden

Q5.

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world with some of the highest rates of child death from diarrhoea. What percentage of its GDP does Ethiopia spend on the military, on health and on sanitation?

It is difficult to capture real public spending on water and sanitation partly because of the fragmentation of financing across ministries, partly because of decentralization and partly because donor financing is often off-budget. However, public spending in the sector as a whole typically represents less than 0.5% of GDP, falling to 0.1% in Pakistan and Zambia (see figure). Within the sector expenditure on sanitation typically falls well short of that for water. Sanitation investment averages about 12%-15% of the total in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Overall spending is low not just relative to national income, but also to other areas of social spending, such as public health. When measured against military spending, the gulf widens to very large proportions. For example, India spends 8 times more of its national wealth on military budgets than on water and sanitation. Pakistan spends 47 times more. In sub-Saharan Africa low average incomes clearly constrain public spending capacity.